Malawi opposition are strategising forming a grand electoral alliance to field one presidential candidate to challenge President Peter Mutharika in 2019 elections, as leaders are “deeply fearful” that there is a danger main opposition block Malawi Congress Party (MCP) would be in “perpetual opposition” unless its presient Lazarous Chakwera dramatically changed tack.

Chakwera: We need to talk at length

MCP administrative secretary Portipher Chidaya said the party will consider the political marriage when it consults its membership.

He said the idea would be good if there will be harmonisation of party policies and manifesto with the view to find common ground.

“We need to create common front with issues of national interest,” Chidaya said.

MCP president Lazarous Chakwera said “it would mean talking at length” and that party supporters at grassroots should be persuaded to back it when they fully understand the idea.

The proposal for electoral pact is said to have been made by Peoples Party (PP) acting president Uladi Mussa.

Mussa said “there is a great need” of forming a grand coalition to field a single presidential candidate for the opposition block.

The PP acting president said he was “strategising on the ground” on the coalition idea.

Alliance for Democrcay (Aford) president Enock Chihana said his party would support “unity of porpose” to liberate Malawians from ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Chihana said the “the phantom od DPP beginning to crumble.”

Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde) president George Nnesa welcomed the proposal.

“The key thing is to have someone ready and credible to take over,” he said.

But political analyst Happy Kayuni based at Chancellor Collge in Zomba, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, advised the opposition said the idea “just to remove the ruling party would not suffice.”

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To Mr Winston Msowoya, Prof. Peter will amass 97% in 2019 for the following reasons:
1) 64,000 metric free maize to be distributed from next month. go and view this at Kanengo. Hon Frank Mwenifumbo has confirmed Karonga Admarcs are full with maize stocks and Chakwera has shut up on hunger fears.
2) 12,000 metric turn of free rice now being repacked into 5kg for distribution to everyone including you in diaspora (DHL will bring it over to you all)
3) Every region is now busy with infrastructure developments, Tarmac roads all over..Kwa Manje, Livingstonia, Malangalanga, Chilinde, Chitungwiza, Mnchengautuwa, Phalombe, Thekerani, Zomba, Mangochi, Salima, Mzimba, Mombera University, Karonga, Chitipa, Mchinji, Kasungu, Lilongwe Old airport to Kasiya, Santhe, Area36 LL, Area23, Area25, Dowa, Ntchisi, Nkhatabay, Mzuzu, Balaka, Liwonde
4) K1Billion to needy students in fees subsidy in public universities
5) 340 megawatts with Kamwamba to be commissioned next week. No black outs during campaign period
6) People of Blantyre will drink water from Sapitwa peak (Mulanje Mountain) to be opened on monday and Lilongwe will be serviced from Lake Malawi waters pipe work underway from Salima.
7) Your Chimunthu has no page in Malawi as his hands are still tied likewise Louis Chimango.
8)KKKKKKKK.Prof Peter is indeed Professor, mark my words

This is a far fetching dream that will never come to fruition. Who amongst the opposition poliitcal party leaders will be taking on Mutharika? How are you coming up with leader of the party to compete with Mutharika? Already Chakwera is power hungry, so is Uladi Mussa. Do you think these bulls will let anybody to lead them? This will be the beginning of the crumbling of the coalition parties. Ask Nnesa, he will tell you how he miserably faired in 2014. Harmonisation of manifestos will not be easy and it won’t happen because each political party will feel it is better than the others. Why can’t you learn from the experience of South Africa local government election results. Parties are having difficulties to team up to form a government, one of the major reasons is the difference in their political agendas. There is no opposition political party that is strong in the South and that makes things very difficult to wrestle power from Mutharika because he South is Pennsylvania of Malawi where any that commands the region wins. This has been the trend since the multiparty dispensation in the country which has turned to be a historic fact that cannot be disputed either by Sociologists nor Historians themselves. You better come up with a better and workable strategy, but of course, not forming a so called grand coalition – you are going to flop.

Mr Winston Nsowoya,you seem to have ideas-good ideas-that can build Malawi.But why are you living away from your mother land.Is it because you are unpatriotic? I urge you to come back home and form your own party.Who knows you could become the next leader of this country.As for Chimunthu Banda,just know that he is a spent force.No body would vote for him.Once again come back home,Winston.

It seems Mwananyanian is a true child of a monkey.Calling DPP a smart and progressive Party? Maybe the two terms are strange to him,he must go back to school or college to learn about the two words: SMART and PROGRESSIVE.Mr.Nyani,to feed Malawians with Mice (Mbewa) and Grasshoper is being PROGRESSIVE? To lead the government which has put Malawians on joblessness at 89 percent,is that smartness and progressive? Crime rate at 95 percent the highest in Southern Africa,is that smartness and progressive? How about 100 percent corruption,by far worse than India,Pakistan,Nigeria and China,is that smartness and progressive?How about tribalism the scourge of Africa which is now openly being encouraged by the DPP leadership,is that smartness and progressive? Lack of life-blood medicines in our hospitals,is that smartness and progressive? Just to name a few anomalies of the Muthalika’s tribalistic regime which has brutally destroyed the fabric of our societies than any government before.Good job the child monkey,try again,but you have betrayed your own soul and the souls of our multi-party struggle heroes!!!

This Mwananyanian will not stoop to your level of name calling, and/or derogatory remarks from anybody. That is probably the best way to shame people like you. Even better, would have been to NOT respond to such comments. You should know that he cannot be deterred as far as expressing his informed views are concerned. Never.
Mwananyanian is well educated, traveled and well informed, and thank you very much: But he cannot claim to be better than you or anybody. Old adage is apropos here: there is always someone smarter or better.
Question for you: Corruption in Malawi being worse than in Nigeria or China? And in what way? in terms of the extent of corruption in the society, or in terms of the amount of resources corrupted? Fair question and fair answer needed: with civility and without personal attacks. See if you can handle that.
Another fair question: What have you been smoking?

Now you are talking Malawians.This is what I have been advising the opposition Parties many times to burry their hatchet and hold the bull by the horns.Afterall,that is very nationalistic and partriotically motivated,we Malawians in diaspora,strongly and hopefully conclude that this is the only way to stop Muthalika and his infamous KLEPTOCRATIC regime in 2019.I would like to suggest the name of the candidate who has all the qualities and that is brother CHIMUNTHU BANDA a genuine son of Malawi and Africa.I hope committed Malawians will join this topic with passion.LET US REMOVE THIS FELONIOUS AND DYSINGENOUS LEADER MALAWI HAS EVER HAD!!!!

The reporter deliberately wrote just a sentence for Kayuni’s response I guess because Kayuni’s response exposed the wEAkness of the opposition block. the opposition block says that they will field one presidential candidate because they want to dislodge DPP from government. That’s their sole reason. Kayuni is arguing that this reason is not good for the nation. He expected to hear something like a national reason and not selfish one. For example, promotion of national unity and improving the welfare of Malawians economically by bringing in good policies. And not just to remove DPP from government and take their positions. That reason has not satisfied Kayuni. Hope I have helped.

All these comments are coming from people who are embezzling government funds and are so scared to hear this, your president is so scared to the extent that he can organise a function spending millions just to attack Kamulepo, you know what is coming for you and you are wetting your pants for this news. Most of these comments are also being written by the same person and that guy from chancellor college didn’t even explain why that can’t work learn from other nations which are being led by wise leaders.

Grand coalition have yielded nothing previously, this is what we call “maloto a chumba”. A Chakwera ingobwererani ku ubusa basi otherwise u will retire from politics without being voted for presidency on malawi land. And mind you what you have done ndi zoti if DPP had no plans to rig votes then you have ignited the process so that at the end of the day adzakuuzani can you we have won with landslide victrory chinsechi “mwiiiina” atabera(i do not mean DPP has this intention is just my feeling anyway). Ask a Chair(Bakili) atamubera Gwanda he said amayi ndi abambo nkhonya ndi nkhonya whether you won by throwing a bottle on your opponent but the issue is to win. So be careful you will cry foul. Take note of this date and you shall remember my words. Believe you me this will happen.

This won’t be the first time such myopic alliances have been hatched and failed despicable. The other election, MCP and other parties did the same with an intention of defeating BM but it didn’t work. Mind you, as long as the aim behind this coming together is to oust DPP from power and not something that will help Malawians across the country, then forget it. As long as the leader chosen to lead the alliance is the same Political Novice in the name Chakwera, who apparently is failing to run and manage a single party then simply discard that childish idea. Just looking from a distance, if people who are coming up with this nonsense are the likes of Change Goal then basically the idea behind their suggestion is just to get into the state house through the back door or behind others. Because on their own single-handedly they will not be able to defeat DPP/UDF. PP has the habit of reaping where they didn’t sow, MCP is used to forming unworkable alliances. Go and ask JZU, Mpinganjira, Chakuamba and company what the outcome usually is. BM used to say “Asiyeni akhalire limodzi kuti ndiwamenyere limodzi” and it indeed happened that way.

To add to Kayuni’s comment, coalescing in politics just to remove one Party from office cannot be an end in itself. MCP’s Chidaya is peddling in dangerous waters here, as that Party would have the most to lose in a coalition. And PP would have the most to gain – they would actually avert a Darwinian extinction: They are almost there, no doubt. As for Aford: a zero sum or net game as their status as a Northern Region party would still be intact. In short, even worst, MCP would be committing suicide.
Is Chidaya ready to write the obit of MCP, already? Did he run this story and his answer through his Party leader? Otherwise, he’s talking like he’s The Leader! And, where is the so-called Party Spokesperson?
And UDF would then openly team up with DPP, as the former have already accepted their junior status in the present quasi-coalition.
Sure, a year in politics is a long time. But as politics stands now, a grand coalition would not necessarily defeat DPP. Just look at their record – in politics, always in contrast with others’. Them demographics, cultural affiliations (read tribes) and how they are like almost strategically distributed, etc etc. And the high profile development and infrastructure projects all over the country. That Party has some of the smartest political strategists in this country, hands down.
Politicians should know that, a fiasco like the University fees is a non-issue to the average Malawian. That issue has nothing to do with whether the villager feeds her/his family today, tomorrow, Saturday or in the near future. Bao players talk about the issue in this way all the time: and it’s NOT trash talk. The concern is with existential prerogatives, to be sure.

Some of us may not agree with DPP, for whatever reasons; but boy, one has to tip one’s hat to
them for being smart. And progressive.

If Chakwera has started stealing money while in opposition what more if in government! Let them join we in DPP are not worried it will even be good for us because we will have all the votes from the South and some from the other parts that will make 50+1 majority in favour of APM. There is nobody in the South who can vote for MCP be it in Mangochi, Balaka, Ntcheu, Mwanza,Neno, Chikhwawa,Blantyre, Thyolo, Phalombe, Mulanje, Chiradzulu which have population almost half of the National population. Hahahahahaha

That is the way to go, unity in purpose! And please our MPs and opposition leaders pressurize the electoral commision for the change to 50 plus system. The Zambians are doing it, why not us? We are tired of being ruled by Presidents who were voted by only 36 % of the electorate. No wonder they concentrate development activities in one region because they believe they can win with votes from only their tribes. The 50 plus sytem will ensure legitimacy of the Presidents and force them to form coalitions with other regions!

Happy is right. If that happens, I will consider to return to Malawi to influence my old friends we live together between 1968 and the 1970s when my father was working for the government of Malawi. My primary purpose as a Ghanaian born in Malawi would to influence not to vote the alliance because it will be the worst of time and resources. Political alliance has no agenda for the poor Malawians but to enrich the members of the alliance who are jobless. We need leader with a clear, comprehensive and coherent objective to emancipate Malawians from poverty and not from Mutharika and DPP. Malawians have no problem with Mutharika but poverty. Read Malawi national anthem and see whether it urges Malawians to fight Mutharika and DPP.